1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a straddle-type personal watercraft (PWC) which ejects water rearward and planes on a water surface as the resulting reaction, and more particularly to a structure of a rear portion of the personal watercraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, so-called jet-propulsion personal watercraft have been widely used in leisure, sport, rescue activities, and the like. The personal watercraft is configured to have a water jet pump that pressurizes and accelerates water sucked from a water intake generally provided on a hull bottom surface and ejects it rearward from an outlet port. Thereby, the personal watercraft is propelled.
In the jet-propulsion personal watercraft, a steering nozzle provided behind the outlet port of the water jet pump is swung either to the right or to the left by operating a bar-type steering handle to the right or to the left, to change the ejection direction of the water to the right or to the left, thereby turning the watercraft to the right or to the left.
The personal watercraft for leisure or sport activities is required to reduce fluid resistance of a body because of its high-speed cruising. In addition to its improved functionality, such a personal watercraft is required to improve its external design appearance and increase its commercial value. As a matter of course, the personal watercraft that is comfortable to ride on is preferred to a passenger riding on a rear portion of a seat. Further, for easier maintenance, it is desirable to arrange components at positions to be readily accessible by an operator.
Since the personal watercraft is small and planes on the water surface, water is always splashing around the watercraft during cruising. During cruising in such a situation, air (ambient air) free from water needs to be supplied into an engine room provided inside the watercraft to operate the engine.
As a solution to this, there have been proposals in the prior art. For example, Japanese Patent No. 2648667 discloses that a gap is created between a seat and a raised deck portion to allow ambient air to be taken into an engine room therethrough. U.S. Pat. No. 5752867 discloses that a handgrip portion extending from a rear end of a straddle-type seat of the watercraft is configured to have a hollow portion and the rear end of the hollow portion is opened to ambient side, to allow ambient air to be taken into the engine room through the handgrip.
However, in the former structure, it is necessary to provide a complex labyrinth structure inside the engine room continuous with the gap for the purpose of removing water splash entering the engine room through the gap between the seat and the deck portion and preventing water ingress into the engine room through the gap when the watercraft is inverted. This results in the deck portion of a complex structure. In the latter structure, the handgrip contains a labyrinth structure for preventing water ingress and therefore is complex in structure.